I am currently doing my bit for global warming  by e-mailing Farnes photo's and sending them to plug the hole in the ozone.They say the shuttle will never fly again due to giant wrasse and sunstars blocking the flight path.

Never mind umpteenth time lucky here goes.Might need more than a page ,I do go on a bit.

 Friday afternoon the car packed the dog fed the kids kicked and tom tom programmed just in case of traffic jams we set off for a nice bimble up the A1,detour to Worksop to avoid M1 then plain sailing up north.  Tom Tom decided that we needed to go through the centre of Middlesboro at 4pm on a bank holiday Friday,when we ignored it it threw the toy's out of the pram,in fact I think it was swearing at some point.

 Past the Angel of The North [if it came out of my rates I would be well miffed what a waste of money] we left the traffic behind and had a nice run in to Seahouses.We found the B&B [nice place very comfortable] and was informed that the skipper would meet us in the pub later.  By 10pm we had got every one together that were coming up that night,mission 1 accomplished.

 8 am Saturday morning for brekki and down to the harbour for ropes off at 9 30.  The lads from Mansfield had made it in good time, bonus mission 2 accomplished.

 We were on Sovereign 3 with Ron as skipper, a diver of some 3000 dives under his belt as well as a boat builder.  We set off for the first dive site and in 20 mins we were there,a nice easy wall dive on the North side of Blue Caps.  In we went and through the first 10 mtr of greeny algae stuff and the bottom came into view.  WOW 10 + mtr vis, starfish every where, Soft Corals, Sun starfish and Dead Mans Fingers covering the walls, what a place 16mtr bottom and sea life every where.  45 mins later we were back on the boat for a brew and a troll round the Longstone light house on a sight seeing tour to end back at the dive site for lunch. 

 Dive 2 off back round to the Longstone lighthouse for another steady wall dive not as deep and not to much sealife other than big crabs, huge Lobsters and stunning wrasse and a swell you felt 8mtr down which made the safety stop fun [5mtr-2mtr-5mtr grab some Kelp 5mtr steady].

 Sunday morning and ropes off at the same time the only problem it's blowing a hooley, when 2 skippers are on the wall looking at the islands shaking their heads you know its rough.  A hand full of Sturgeon and away we went, boy it was lumpy.  We finally bounced to the East of Staple island and the Pinnacles, fairly sheltered but boy do those Puffins and Shearwaters stink.  We were over the wreck of the St Andre a 70 mtr long cargo vessel which sank in 1908 carrying wrought iron to Grangemouth.  It sits in 25 mtr of water with only the side laying flat to the sea bed and 2 massive boilers still intact, once again the vis was great once you had dropped through the 10 mtr of algae.  Plenty to see including wrasse that can be hand fed with a nice urchin, we had to do 2 dives on this site due to the wind but who cares its an amazing place.

 On reflection it was maybe too early in the season, there weren't many seals on the rocks and none would come and play.   I don't know what the vis is like later in the year but it was no less than 10 mtr on the bottom.  This is definitely a trip that needs to be done on any occasion going, with numerous dive sites for all levels this is a place you will never get tired with. 

 If you have never dived here then next holiday do it, it is a must. So when NEIL sort's out the next trip we will all be there!!

 Many thanks to Simon for doing some leg work when things looked like going belly up, and to everyone who made the rip you all made a cracking weekend. 

           On behalf of everyone who was there a big thanks to Dave for  putting this trip together and the report.